iOS Jailbreaking:What is it all about?

ByKia Dargahi

Those who have come to adopt iOS as their preferred mobile platform will boast about its seamlessness and its simplicity. Underneath all of this coding however, exists a very enclosed and closed source system. iOS pales in comparison to android as far as customization. There exists, of course, a solution that will make android users weep in tears of the simplicity of it. This solution is called Jailbreaking.

For some of you who don’t know, Jailbreaking (in the context of iOS) is the process of exploiting Apple’s security holes in order to install a third party installer to the operating system. While there exists other alternatives such as Infinity and Icy, Cydia is the main installer that jailbreakers attempt to acquire onto their phones (I would know, I myself am a jailbreaker). While it may seem that Jailbreaking is easy (and trust me, it is), the process that hackers have to go through to ensure that everything works properly is nothing short of a nightmare.

Each and every time a major update releases, iOS 6-> iOS 7 for example, hackers must most likely start from scratch to exploit the OS. This is due to the fact that Apple patches the security exploit used by hackers each and every time that a working jailbreak has been released. This game of cat and mouse has the developer community puzzled as statistics show that when a new jailbreak is released, users who were holding off on the update immediately jump ship. This leads us to the highly anticipated iOS 7 jailbreak.

Jailbreakers were treated to a major surprise just before Christmas 2013 when the iOS 7 jailbreak was abruptly released. Instead of the usual hype surrounding a jailbreak (I’m looking at you iOS 6.1 jailbreak), a team of hackers that go by the moniker “evad3rs” seemed almost rushed to release the jailbreak before Christmas day. Many users were anticipating this jailbreak due to the fact that control center and multitasking could be expanded upon with tweaks and various utilities in Cydia.

Now, why should you jailbreak? Well, chances are that you have at least one iDevice in your household. Jailbreaking offers the customization that Apple never wanted at any expense! There are even extra security measures built in to the system so that your precious Apple product won’t become corrupted. You can change the look of your icons, the function of each hardware button, the speed of the OS, every little thing is at your fingertips; there is no going wrong with a jailbreak. The best part? It’s completely foolproof! It is merely a one-click process, just download the software onto your computer, plug in your phone, click the button, and that’s it! Not only that, but also, it can be reversed with a click of a button as well, just restore your phone on iTunes.

I, for example, jailbroke my iPad mini on iOS 7.0.4 using software that I downloaded from http://evasi0n.com. This is the official site for the iOS 7 jailbreak (supports 7.1 up to beta 3) and I would recommend only using software from this website as this the website that the developers of the jailbreak themselves made the platform for and others may be scams or viruses. Once I downloaded this package, which is available for either windows or mac (sorry Linux users), I connected my phone, opened the package, and let it identify my iDevice. Once that was determined, I clicked “jailbreak”, waited about 2 minutes, and had to unlock my iPad and open a newly made icon on the device. Once that was done, I waited another 2 minutes and voila, my iPad was officially jailbroken on iOS7. Keep in mind that waiting times may vary from device to device and that you must open Cydia once it is installed and let it refresh and install updates in order for it to be useable. Once that simply process is done, you’re good to go!

Be wary though, as OTA updates will no longer be available to you and you may risk losing your jailbreak because of this. It’s only a small price to pay for such an enabling software.

So what do you guys think? Are you interested in finding out about Jailbreaking now? Let us know in the comment section!